Asia Maritime

South China Sea: Satellite photos 'show weapons' built on islands

New photographic evidence has emerged of “significant” Chinese military defences on artificial islands in the South China Sea, a think tank reports.

China had previously committed to not militarising its controversial developments in the region.

But satellite images published by a US group appear to show anti-aircraft guns and missile defence systems on the seven islands.

Several countries claim territorial rights in the South China Sea.

The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) said it had been tracking construction of hexagon-shaped buildings on four of the Spratly islands for several months.

Image copyrightAMTI

It said the new buildings were an “evolution” of structures on the three other islands, but it was now confident that all of the buildings housed military defences.

The group says that some buildings “host what are most likely anti-aircraft guns” which have visible gun barrels in satellite images, while others are probably what it terms close-in weapons systems (CIWS).

CIWS are defence platforms used to detect and shoot down missiles and other aircraft.

Some of the structures have been buried, the group said – which would make them less vulnerable to enemy strikes.

Image copyrightAMTI

“These gun and probable CIWS emplacements show that Beijing is serious about defence of its artificial islands in case of an armed contingency in the South China Sea,” AMTI said.